C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

11/09/2010 • 10:35 AM 1

#Publishing Links: Bad News for Publishers

I attended a writers’ conference where a keynote speaker criticized a former publisher. The publisher was small, and Canadian, and there had been a dispute over the author’s electronic rights (though the publisher wasn’t selling any digital versions of the author’s work anyway.) That’s when things got ugly. “Small publishers aren’t interested in selling books. They make their money with government grants.” He walked back from that statement and mentioned several small presses he revered, but he had reason for his venom. He bought the rights back at great expense so he could use them properly.

It is true that if you’re a small Canadian publisher, you’re eligible for grants. The big publishers have some margin for error in their budgets. The mid-sized publishers are walking a financial tightrope. That’s the general point of a recent Globe & Mail article on the dangers waters publishers sail. It’s worth reading when you’re trying to choose whom you should send your precious manuscript.

In other news, if you check yesterday’s comments, you’ll see Sue Kenney, author of My Camino, stopped by for a comment about how she wrote fast to fit her publisher’s schedule. (Thanks for commenting , Sue! Check out her site and her wonderful story at www.suekenney.ca.) I mentioned in my reply how many traditional publishers are losing book sales because they don’t have the electronic version available and people are looking for those titles. When you don’t find the titles you want, you buy a book that is available for your iPad.

How do I know this? Because I’ve visited this link: Lost Book Sales | Every day an author and a publisher lose a sale. These are the stories why.‏ Publishers? If you haven’t embarked on your e-book program yet, you don’t have much time left to make the switch before you are irrelevant. (Yes, JK Rowling is the exception. She’s refusing to allow Harry Potter to go digital. Good for her. However, her amazing success is atypical in the industry and shouldn’t be the basis for sales decisions about the rest of the market.)

As if that weren’t enough to make a publisher knock out a window and crawl out on a ledge, I ran across this post on the wave of piracy that’s coming to my favorite industry: Your time is up, publishers. Book piracy is about to arrive on a massive scale – Telegraph Blogs – The BFF‏.

Don’t worry though, friends!

This isn’t a wake.

It’s just a call to make the choice to adapt.

It’s a hope the industry is willing to change.

Happy Tuesday! I’m off to NanoWriMo.

E-Books Are a Billion Dollar Market (slog.thestranger.com)
How to Promote Your Ebook (suzanneanderson.net)
Mike Shatzkin discusses e-book territorial restrictions (teleread.com)
Publishers Fear eBook Piracy, But Shouldn’t (torrentfreak.com)
Google Editions, Bookstore in the Cloud, Will Go Live By July (libraryjournal.com)
So You Want to Self-Publish? (suzanneanderson.net)
James bond novels go digital, cutting out Penguin (telegraph.co.uk)
The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (smashwords.com)
Ian Fleming’s James Bond E-Books: Bypassing the Print Publisher (dailyfinance.com)
Amazon Introduces 70% Revenue Share For Kindle Magazine And Newspaper Publishers (techcrunch.com)

Filed under: links, Media, publishing, self-publishing, books, Globe & Mail, publishers, publishing, Publishing and Printing

11/05/2010 • 2:15 PM 1

CanWrite! 2011 Conference Announcement

Image via Wikipedia

In 2011, the Canadian Authors Association has announced CanWrite! 2011

will be held in Grand Bend, Ontario, May 2-8!

For more information on the conference/writer’s retreat, here’s the link.

If you’re a writer, please consider attending. I attended the CanWrite! Conference in Victoria, British Columbia last summer. I learned so much there. I took in workshops, had my eyes opened to the future of book publishing and best of all, met a lot of really cool writers. (I even got to do a live reading of one of my short stories.)

Writing is a lonely profession. It’s fun and useful to connect and recharge. This year, CanWrite will operate like a writers’ retreat so yes, you can get stuff done!

(Thanks to my friend Kim for the heads-up.)

Indie Revolution Update: The 2011 San Francisco Writers Conference “Goes Indie” (prweb.com)
How To Write and Publish A Book For The First Time – For Teachers (brighthub.com)

Filed under: publishing, self-publishing, Useful writing links, Writing Conferences, Canwrite Conference, publishing, Writers Resources, writers retreat, writing conference

11/03/2010 • 12:18 PM 1

Interesting Video on DIY Publishing

DIY Publishing video: If you have a network, you don’t need publishers.

(“But we still need editors,” his self-serving voice muttered.)

About uncommon sense by Chad Lilly-fReado‏

This is inspiring. It inspires me to be one of the cool kids so I have my own network to distribute my work.

Time to step it up a notch in all our lives, yes?

Discuss freely.

Filed under: publishing, self-publishing, web reviews, DIY publishing, Do it yourself

10/26/2010 • 1:06 PM 0

Tuesday Publishing Links for You

Image via Wikipedia

5 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Outstanding | Social Media Examiner‏

The Slush Pile: Enter at Your Own Risk | Steve Laube‏

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » What NOT to do at a Bookstore Signing‏

What does self-publishing cost?

How to Get an Agent for Your Book‏

InDigital | Twitter and the Publishing Industry‏

Related Articles

Why book publishing needs the Silicon Valley way (macworld.com)
He’s Not a Very Good Writer, but He’s Right (slog.thestranger.com)
Why Douglas Rushkoff left his publisher in order to publish a book (boston.com)
Secrets of successful group blogs (smartblogs.com)
How to Publish Your Book in the iBookstore | Copyblogger (avantrasara.com)

Filed under: agents, ebooks, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, queries, self-publishing, Useful writing links, web reviews, writing tips, hot to get an agent, how much does self-publishing cost?, make better blog posts, publishing, Slush pile, social media, Twitter

10/22/2010 • 8:31 PM 1

Friday Publishing Advice Links

Image via Wikipedia

Sorry for the late post today. I’m feeling a bit under the weather, but that must not stop the great publishing links!

To kick things off, the top link is a great review of the iPad as a writing tool. Mr. David Hewson confirms my opinion that iPad is a great information consuming tool. It’s not a productive writing tool. He’s got me excited about Android tablets as an intriguing alternative to the iPad.
Read his detailed review here: David Hewson.

Remember those old Ronco ads? But wait, there’s more!

A writer’s blog on taking the NaNoWriMo challenge.

I Want to Publish My Book. Now what?

How to Write for Love and Money

10 Marketing Excuses That Can Kill Your Book and Career | The Official BookBuzzr Blog

Interview with Richard Hine on building a better book trailer.

Will You Be An Independent Author? « BubbleCow

A writer in the final stages of the book polish contemplates the wait ahead.

And last, but not at all least from Roger C. Parker…(make a drumroll sound in your brain)…

The 100 best writing books
More to come Monday morning, but first…a nap!

‏

Stave Off Writer’s Block This November with NaNoWriMo (seattlest.com)
NaNoWriMo for the Kindle Reader: Mastering the Craft of Fiction (kindlereader.blogspot.com)
ISBW #161 Nanowrimo / Bob Fingerman Interview (murverse.com)
Write a Novel in a Month (howto.wired.com)
D*I*Y Planner | the best thing in printing since Gutenberg (diyplanner.com)
How to Build a Writer Platform on The Internet (webupon.com)

Filed under: Friday Publishing Advice Links, NanNoWriMo, publishing, self-publishing, web reviews, writing tips, Friday Publishing Advice Links, independent author, iPad review, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, self-publishing, Writers Resources

07/17/2010 • 1:56 PM 1

Why You Need an Editor

I recently attended a publishing conference where someone spoke at length about how bookstore staff identify self-published books by ISBN quirks. I can tell you with certainty, when there is prejudice against self-published books, it’s not because anybody’s eyeing the ISBN. It’s because many—okay, I’ll say it—most self-published books look unprofessional. (And by unprofessional, I mean they look like crap.)

The common complaint about self-published books and ebooks is that they are poorly edited. Characters change names. Spelling and grammar go awry. Narrative threads get lost permanently. Every manuscript has its problems. These problems bother readers. Errors take the reader out of the story and hurt your professional credibility.

But hiring your own editor is not just mandatory for self-published authors burning to get their ebook out. When the economy went crazy, publishing houses fired much of their editing staff. For instance, I worked for a publisher with several lines of defence: acquiring editors, line editors, copy editors, and three walls of proofreaders. Now? Publishers still have acquiring editors, but they’ve cut back on the rest of the staff drastically. Yes, traditional houses still have editors, but they have far fewer of them. How much time and attention do you think your book will really get? There’s a math question easily solved.

Every publishing outlet, from newspapers to books, has less defence against typos and errors in execution. You see it every day. That’s why more authors—both traditional and non, ebook and pbook, published and non—are hiring editors to help with the heavy lifting. Editors make any book or manuscript better.

Whether yours is a manuscript or any finished book, it needs editing or no one will take you seriously. Consider hiring an editor for your project. A freelance editor’s work will enhance your chances of becoming published and reduce errors in the final product. Once your manuscript is out there to be submitted (or once the book is on the shelves) you can’t pull those errors out.

Your Aunt Betsy will delight in pointing out your every error. And she’ll be pretty damn smug about it.

Filed under: Editors, publishing, self-publishing, writing tips, editing, hiring an editor

07/17/2010 • 1:00 PM 0

Who Should Self-Publish?

I recently had a discussion with a client who looked down on self-publishing. He saw it as an exercise in vanity. That was true for a long time, but not anymore. In fact, Google has made instant ebooks a reality, and not just for frustrated writers who can’t get published through traditional publishing houses. If you can get an agent and an editor with a traditional house, the common wisdom is that from now until the clock runs out in about five years, that’s still the best way to go for most projects.*

However, self-publishing is right for a lot of people. There is one group for whom it is essential. If you’re a professional speaker, you need to be talking at the front of the room and sell your books at the back of the room. If you leverage the marketing platform you already have, you keep more of the profit and cut out a middle man. Also, the middle man has committees and hoops for you and your brilliant idea to jump through. The client was shocked to find the book project could take one to two years to make it to publication (if it were accepted immediately.) Even if a project is identified as a winner, each publisher has budgetary restraints that can hold up publication. They can’t publish every book they’ve identified as saleable in one year.

The client wants to speak professionally, but still wants to go the traditional route. Fortunately, he has a solid contact with a publishing house. Had he not, I would have pushed harder for him to self-publish. As it is, I’ll be helping him put together a killer book proposal so he’ll have a book to sell as he works the room and works his magic.

If you already have a platform (or stage) from which to sell, DIY is the best way to go. Publishers are offering authors less and less. They offer tinier advances than ever, unambitious promotion, and less editing than ever. Traditional publishers have diminished themselves to distribution networks. Once the distribution becomes less relevent, what credibility they add will be largely be forgotten as well.

The publishing people I know all say, “We have to learn from the mistakes the music industry made.” That’s true. But that’s where that conversation ends. Either they don’t know what mistakes the music industry made, or the analogy doesn’t bear up across the two industries.

*Self-publishing is also the ideal route for a memoir that’s meant for a small audience (e.g. your family) or for some projects that are distinctly regional if you have a platform.

YOUR NEXT QUESTION:

How do I build a platform?

A BRIEF ANSWER (AND MORE LINKS)